Today unfortunately the weather was against us and we were unable to continue working in the community garden that will eventually feed many local families still struggling with the aftermath of SANDY. Instead eight of us returned to Visitation Social Services in Brick Township and performed a variety of work indoors. Some of us filled over 60 Easter Baskets for local children, wrapping and tagging them. Other jobs included painting some doors in the office area, sorting toiletries and arranging them on shelves, and (finally) arranging all the donated furniture and appliances in a section of the warehouse so it would look like a store. Pushing the four stoves across the floor proved a challenge until two men who worked there came over to help. When we finished hauling and dragging things around, all the adults seemed pleased that their “Thrift Shop” was finally taking shape. And as a “thank you,” they showed us their Facebook page where they had featured various pictures of us. We are now world famous!
S. Christi
Today we started a tiled floor for a house in Toms River that was missing much of its flooring. There were other people who had volunteered before us but they had many a few mistakes that caused us trouble. They did a less than satisfactory job on the spackling and they seem to have watered down the spackle which made it harder to do the job. When we started the floor we were informed by the homeowner that there was a mistake in the tiling. At a few points the tiles were cut round which the homeowner didn’t want so we had to take off the tiles and scrape the glue up.
Kyle Flynn
Today we returned to Visitation Relief Center. It rained so we spent the day inside. First our group made Easter baskets for children of the displaced families. Each basket had a toy and a great deal of candy. The baskets then had to be wrapped, taped shut, and tied with a ribbon. About halfway through this, three of us went upstairs to the offices and painted bi-fold doors. We did two coats to cover the wood. We finished this at around the same time that the rest of our group finished their work but the center had no work left for us to do inside. We spent about forty minutes waiting for Ms. McGinn to pick us up. It was nice being able to relax and spend time talking with my group.
Katelyn Crane
Today I went to Mr. and Mrs. King’s house in Toms River. I had to sand a hallway to get it ready for primer. Then, I helped Mr. King put down some molding. He had some really interesting stories. At one point, he had a miniature pig as a pet. They were really nice people, and they even offered us lunch, which I was helped them finish off. All in all it was a really nice time, though it was raining all day.
Louis Springer
On day three, the Katrina-Sandy team had a pretty good time. The team arrived at the visitation center to start the next task at hand. We were informed that the team was going to do something to help the emotional needs of the children affected by the hurricane. The task given was simple, just make sixty Easter baskets. When first hearing this I wasn’t too excited but when I heard it was for children, I was determined to do a perfect job. Our team finished the baskets in record time and they looked pretty amazing. After the basket project was finished our team did some work organizing. Some of the things we organized were personal supplies like shampoo, toothpaste, soap, etc... . Once that was finished the team went into to the center’s storage area that was filled with a variety of things people needed. We moved mostly furniture and a few stoves. I enjoyed this the most. I enjoyed the fact that I did something to make others happy.
Elias Odom
Today I helped a single parent named Brenda and her son John by carrying stuff in her house. I was with three students and a teacher. The first thing we did was carry a treadmill to her new house. Her old house was destroyed by the hurricane. Then we had to stack dry wall, copper wire, two by fours, and insulation. After that, we had lunch and it was good because all of us had a nice conversation with her. Then we had to carry all of her drawers to the upstairs and it was kind of hard. When we got done, she told us her story and it was so depressing to hear that all she had was gone.
Today unfortunately the weather was against us and we were unable to continue working in the community garden that will eventually feed many local families still struggling with the aftermath of SANDY. Instead eight of us returned to Visitation Social Services in Brick Township and performed a variety of work indoors. Some of us filled over 60 Easter Baskets for local children, wrapping and tagging them. Other jobs included painting some doors in the office area, sorting toiletries and arranging them on shelves, and (finally) arranging all the donated furniture and appliances in a section of the warehouse so it would look like a store. Pushing the four stoves across the floor proved a challenge until two men who worked there came over to help. When we finished hauling and dragging things around, all the adults seemed pleased that their “Thrift Shop” was finally taking shape. And as a “thank you,” they showed us their Facebook page where they had featured various pictures of us. We are now world famous!
S. Christi
Today we started a tiled floor for a house in Toms River that was missing much of its flooring. There were other people who had volunteered before us but they had many a few mistakes that caused us trouble. They did a less than satisfactory job on the spackling and they seem to have watered down the spackle which made it harder to do the job. When we started the floor we were informed by the homeowner that there was a mistake in the tiling. At a few points the tiles were cut round which the homeowner didn’t want so we had to take off the tiles and scrape the glue up.
Kyle Flynn
Today we returned to Visitation Relief Center. It rained so we spent the day inside. First our group made Easter baskets for children of the displaced families. Each basket had a toy and a great deal of candy. The baskets then had to be wrapped, taped shut, and tied with a ribbon. About halfway through this, three of us went upstairs to the offices and painted bi-fold doors. We did two coats to cover the wood. We finished this at around the same time that the rest of our group finished their work but the center had no work left for us to do inside. We spent about forty minutes waiting for Ms. McGinn to pick us up. It was nice being able to relax and spend time talking with my group.
Katelyn Crane
Today I went to Mr. and Mrs. King’s house in Toms River. I had to sand a hallway to get it ready for primer. Then, I helped Mr. King put down some molding. He had some really interesting stories. At one point, he had a miniature pig as a pet. They were really nice people, and they even offered us lunch, which I was helped them finish off. All in all it was a really nice time, though it was raining all day.
Louis Springer
On day three, the Katrina-Sandy team had a pretty good time. The team arrived at the visitation center to start the next task at hand. We were informed that the team was going to do something to help the emotional needs of the children affected by the hurricane. The task given was simple, just make sixty Easter baskets. When first hearing this I wasn’t too excited but when I heard it was for children, I was determined to do a perfect job. Our team finished the baskets in record time and they looked pretty amazing. After the basket project was finished our team did some work organizing. Some of the things we organized were personal supplies like shampoo, toothpaste, soap, etc... . Once that was finished the team went into to the center’s storage area that was filled with a variety of things people needed. We moved mostly furniture and a few stoves. I enjoyed this the most. I enjoyed the fact that I did something to make others happy.
Elias Odom
Today I helped a single parent named Brenda and her son John by carrying stuff in her house. I was with three students and a teacher. The first thing we did was carry a treadmill to her new house. Her old house was destroyed by the hurricane. Then we had to stack dry wall, copper wire, two by fours, and insulation. After that, we had lunch and it was good because all of us had a nice conversation with her. Then we had to carry all of her drawers to the upstairs and it was kind of hard. When we got done, she told us her story and it was so depressing to hear that all she had was gone.
Robert Deegan